Pont d ' Europe
Traditional flat-bottomed Loire boat
PADDLER 71
dotted any sandy bank ; always , there were raptors like black kites , ospreys and hobbies ; on the water ’ s edge the heron family counted in grey and squacco herons , and great white and little egrets ; and a maritime feel came with gulls , cormorants , and common and little terns . As I learned in my descent , the terns , along with the little ringed plover , are treated as symbols of the wild and untamed Loire . They nest on protected sandy islands , and paddlers are discouraged or prevented from landing .
Pont d ' Europe
FRÉDÉRIC ’ S ADVENTURES
Suddenly , there was a cry . Looking out , I was amazed to see two divers , smiles on their faces just visible in their wetsuits . They were father and son , both firemen ( sapeurs-pompiers in French , which sounds much better ), and they were descending the length of the Loire for charity . I met them again later . Each day they ’ d swim for five or six hours , pushing all their gear on ( self-explanatory ) hydro-flotteurs before setting up camp or being entertained by local colleagues . Frédéric ’ s adventures put mine firmly in its place . In 2005 , he kayaked the length of the Loire in ten days and , in 2007 , rowed the Atlantic solo . Among his concerns now , as a swimmer , were the voracious three-metre-long catfish that lurk in the Loire and , so he said , eat anything and everything .
My own experience on water had started only the previous autumn with runs up and down the small tidal rivers of Sussex . When summer came , a trip down the Loire seemed irresistible despite the considerable step up in scale . I planned to avoid the gorges and dams of its upper reaches ( below Le Puyen-Valay ) and to start just north of Roanne from where my excellent guide-book ( La Loire , Vue du Fleuve by Jean-François Souchard ) promised “ neither bridge nor rocky sill is going to hinder your progress ” - in short , ideal for a beginner
So , in the middle of May , after a short but difficult passage down the river Sornin , a tributary , I emerged onto the Loire , here just a hundred metres wide . For my first few days , it was bordered by willow and poplar-dominated woodland or fields full of Charolais cattle . Swollen by earlier heavy rains , the river flowed at a good jogging pace but accelerated in the frequent shallow runs between islands . How exhilarating to move at such speed with so little effort !
My kayak was an inflatable Sevylor Yukon , not the fastest of craft , and even less so fully laden as it was with camping gear and enough food and water to last a week . It needed just a steady here and a check there , so there was ample opportunity to gaze at the scenery and to watch an amazing array of birdlife . Clouds of swifts would be swooping overhead , joined by sand martins and bee-eaters whose nest burrows
This May , however , the birds had nowhere to go . With these islands underwater , the nesting season could not get underway . In the evening , a few hours after the firemen had passed , the rise of the river had me worried . I was either to spend an anxious night wondering if I ’ d be washed away or make a dash for a campsite in the town of Decize , some 32 kilometres away . High , steep banks and waist-deep nettles under the trees were scarcely conducive to finding a suitable pitch for my tent .
BEAVERS
The journey lasted three and a half hours . By now , the Loire had doubled its width . First , its horizon in front blurred into the sky , and then the banks faded away into the falling dark . Although there was little floodborne flotsam , travel in these conditions was still risky . It did , however , bring an unexpected bonus . In the absolute silence bar that of the rain , it allowed me to hear the thwacking of beaver tails on the water as a warning of my approach . Having disappeared from the Loire at the beginning of the 20th century , beavers were successfully reintroduced in 1976 , becoming another emblem of the river ’ s natural environment .
Decize is a waterway crossroads . On its southern edge is the Canal Latéral à la Loire , which runs parallel to and very close to the river ; on its northern edge is the former bed of the river ( with a canoe club based on its bank ), which runs into the river Aron . Just where the Aron joins the present Loire is the start of the Canal du Nivernais , which heads eastwards to link the Loire basin with that of the Seine .
For anyone descending the Loire , the big problem with Decize is the dam at its downstream end . Souchard
Traditional flat-bottomed Loire boat
PADDLER 71